Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa
I work on how governments can make the most of AI today, and how to ensure it remains safe and aligned tomorrow. I’m Chair of Policy Innovation at Stellenbosch University and founder of the Policy Innovation Lab. We build and ship AI tools, along with the support public institutions need to use them well. We’ve developed an AI for Policy platform now in use by government partners, and we support digital public infrastructure reform initiatives. My academic background is in ethics and policy (PhD, Alexander von Humboldt Fellow). I have advised the UN, AU, EU and the South African government, and I have hands-on experience in industry, including work at a global tech company, co-founding a legal tech NLP startup, and leading teams that shipped AI tools into production. Alongside the Lab’s delivery work, I’m developing a frontier AI safety and alignment agenda, including work on instrumental goals, value alignment, and practical governance mechanisms that can be implemented in African contexts. If you’re working at the intersection of AI delivery, governance and frontier safety, let’s connect.
I founded and lead the Policy Innovation Lab (https://policyinnovationlab.sun.ac.za/) at Stellenbosch University's School for Data Science and Computational Thinking.
Phronesis uses machine learning to make sense of qualitative data.
The Hub uses machine learning to make SDG-relevant research accessible, in partnership with the South African and German governments.
I won the Middle East and Africa Rookie of the Year Award.